If you are at your work desk right now, twiddling your thumbs and thinking that you will sign into your favourite social network site such as Facebook or Twitter, just to express how loathsome your day has been, then you might want to think again before you do so. This is because you could be breaching the rules of your work place.

According to a study performed by Robert Half Technology, an IT staffing company, 54% of US businesses block their employees from accessing sites such as Twitter and Facebook during office hours. The study that was released last week found that 19% of companies allow access to social network sites for business use only, while 16% allowed a limited amount of time to be spent on using such sites for personal use during office hours. The study also found that of the 1,400 Congress of Industrial Organizations questioned only 10% said their companies allowed unrestricted access to social networking sites.

Social networking has exploded in popularity in just the last four years and looks set to become even more popular. Some businesses have cottoned onto quite quickly the way in which the world now communicates and actively use social networking sites to baluster the position of the products and services they provide or to check a prospective employee out before they offer them that job they're after. However there is no disputing the fact that when some employees spend up to two working hours a day on the likes of Twitter, Facebook et al, productivity is bound to take a hit.

"Using social networking sites may divert employees' attention away from more pressing priorities, so it's understandable that some companies limit access. For some professions, however, these sites can be leveraged as effective business tools, which may be why about one in five companies allows their use for work-related purposes." said Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology, in a statement.

Necules Research who also conducted a similar study back in July found that productivity drops around 1.5% in businesses that allow unrestricted access to social networking sites and that 77% of workers interviewed admit to using Facebook during working hours and some 87% of workers had no business reason for using the their favoured Social Networking site.

Original source: Wiredblog.com